Photography at Night

[Mike Farley]

Last year I learnt a new technique for night time photography in unlit areas. It is simplicity itself, as 30 seconds @f/4 with ISO set to 800 will yield a well lit image. I tried it out for myself at Kingston Russell Stone Circle and one of the results is in this image. There is certainly something intriguing about the quality of the light which is captured. The glow towards the right edge is most likely coming from Dorchester. There was a nearly full moon that night, but nevertheless it was tricky getting the focus and composition right as not much was visible in the viewfinder and I had to straighten the image a bit in post processing. The pictures were taken as an experiment and a monument with larger stones than those at Kingston Russsell would have had a greater impact. There are also possibilities for incorporating painting with light when using this technique.

Kingston Russell Stone Circle at night

Night (1 of 2).jpg (168.86 KiB) Viewed 5961 times

On the way back, I took this shot of the night time sky.

Orion

Night (2 of 2).jpg (192.91 KiB) Viewed 5961 times

[Simon Clarkson]

That's awesome..

How dark was it when you took it???

Regards

[Mike Farley]

There was quite a bright moon that night, which I had to keep out of the image as it was creating a very bright highlight which was blowing out, so there was some illumination. That said, it was still very dark and setting up was tricky. The exposure is as light as it is due to a combination of the high ISO and the sensor accumulating the light over the 30 seconds for which the shutter was open. I used a short focal length, 12 mm for the first shot and 15 mm for the second, which helped keep everything in focus.

[davidc]

Really impressed by that, exactly what time did you take it and what did the sky look like to the naked eye? You must have been quite a way out of town for the sky to not be ruined by light pollution.

[Mike Farley]

According to the EXIF data, the first image was taken just after 10 pm on 18 March 2011. The second shot was around 30 minutes later. As you can see, it was a clear night with a bright moon which I kept out of shot, but the sky was black to the naked eye. You are right, it is a very remote location some way to the south west of Dorchester and can only be accessed via a track which is unsuitable for motor vehicles.

[davidc]

Extremely interesting that it's black to the naked eye yet blue on camera, I've taken thousands of shots and never seen that effect. Then again the majority have been ruined with light pollution but still the fact there can be such a pronounced difference is interesting. I wonder what exactly is causing such a difference between sensor and eye resolution of the scene - maybe it's just a narrow period of time where the sky at long exposures contains residual blueness the eye can't perceive!

Which would make planning to capture it tricky, how would you know beforehand what the camera will see! Curious!

[Simon Clarkson]

I'am off to Littlehampton tomorrow for the night. Fingers Crossed its a clear sky as I'am going to have a bash at this!!

Mike, Thanks for the welcome at the Club last night.

David, sorry I didn't get the chance to get better acquainted but I was tight on time yesterday!

Kind Regards..


P.S Mike can I change my username to my name??

[Mike Farley]

Simon, good luck with the experiment. Just bear in mind that you will need to be in open countryside away from artificial lights for the best results.

I can change your username for you. Drop me a PM with what you want it to be and I'll update it.

[Rose]

I'm definitely going to try this ! I wish I'd known about this technique when we were in France earlier this year as we were staying in a really isolated location and the night sky was wonderful.

It was good to meet you last night Simon - shame you couldn't stay longer but I look forward to seeing you next week hopefully.